Square Enix has finally broken its long silence regarding the state of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. For the most part, it's excellent news.

The second chapter of the planned remake trilogy was announced last year and given a Winter 2023 release date. But, one of our later reports detailed that internal turmoil has forced Square Enix to push the game's release date back to a later, still-undetermined date. The franchise's long-time developers have yet to address this, which is why Yoshinori Kitase's latest update comes at an excellent time.

Just weeks before Final Fantasy 16 comes out and shortly after FF7 Rebirth missed the May 24 PlayStation Showcase, Kitase confirmed that the development of the game is progressing smoothly.

According to the trilogy's official Twitter page, the development team is busy "working on nailing down a release date" for FF7 Rebirth.

Rebirth picks up exactly where Final Fantasy VII Remake and its post-launch expansion, Intermission, left off. It sees Cloud and his companions continue their journey beyond Midgar but with a lot of changes from the original story. It's difficult to anticipate what to expect in terms of the game's narrative based on the cinematic reveal trailer alone but it's expected that the game's events will differ from the source material.

Going back to the release date, it's unclear if Winter 2023 means the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024 or if this is still the release window.

Unlike the first game in the trilogy, the middle child is exclusive to the PlayStation 5.

As fans await for more news about the next FF7 Remake entry, Square Enix is preparing to launch FF16 on June 22. It's now widely speculated that Square Enix will take more about FF7 Rebirth after the next mainline installment in the best-selling JRPG franchise is out.

As Square Enix is confirmed for the upcoming Summer Game Fest on June 8, fans are holding onto the small chance that Rebirth will appear there, potentially revealing more details about the much-anticipated title.

For now, though, fans can only speculate about how much FF7 Rebirth will change the timeline of the original game.

Speaking of Final Fantasy, the evidence for a remake of Final Fantasy 9 Remake continues to grow. On top of the infamous Nvidia GeForce Now leak, one insider claims that this "other" remake by Square Enix will be out sometime in 2025.

If this is true, then Square Enix will have a big AAA Final Fantasy entry every year for at least the next two to three years.